Bar Position in YOUR Squat

     You can witness many different squat variations when you look around our gym on any given day.  To name a few there is the air squat, front squat, overhead squat, goblet squat, cossak squats, pistol, and many others.  You will also find that there is an even greater variety across individuals in the way each squat is executed.  Some of the strategies applied make me cringe while others are just interesting to see, serving as examples of the differences of the human body.  On this note, let's look at the most frequently (heavy) squat you are likely to encounter, the back squat.  Some of you may not realize that there are variations even in this staple exercise, but you need to.  The technique you employ, consciously or not, will dictate what you take away from the movement.  Have a closer look at the high bar (olympic style) vs low bar (powerlifting style) back squat, what that means, and the benefits of each.  Click HERE for an extensive discussion of the high-bar vs low-bar squat and take an active role in your development, unless you could give a shit (that's a call-out).

Which do you choose
     It is important to recognize that powerlifters and olympic weightlifters have very different goals from each other and they incorporate the squat for different reasons.  For powerlifters, squatting is the goal.  They are going to use the technique that will allow them to get the most possible weight on the bar–low bar.  However, for olympic lifters, the squat is merely an assistance exercise to allow them to C+J and Snatch more.  These athletes must build strength in a very specific way (upright) in order to reach this goal.  But how should the objectives of CrossFitters define their approach to the squat?  
    There are many perfectly valid opinions on which squat is most appropriate for CrossFitters, but now I'm going to offer the only one that actually matters…mine.  Though both camps make moving points we generalists have the luxury of picking and choosing which is most appropriate for ourselves as individuals and even utilize both (shocking I know).  While the low-bar squat is a superior developer of the posterior chain (on which most athletic movements rely), the high-bar seems to more specifically cater to CrossFit workouts because of all the upright squatting we do.  If you are someone who is strong as an ox but tends to lean too far forward when doing the majority of CF movements then perhaps an upright protocol (high-bar) is more appropriate.  Conversely, if you are lacking overall strength (and have a flat ass, insert the name of flat assed person(s) to comments) then a low bar position will allow you to utilize the most possible muscle and improve your pulling movements and general strength at the same time.  There are certainly more complex ways in which you could incorporate these lifts and this post by no means exhausts this debate but it is a jumping off point.  However, you DO need to know what kind of bar-position you tend to prefer and how it effects your athletic development.